Arts & Events

Theatre of Yugen, the Bay Area's classical Japanese theater company (& the only company in North America that practices & performs Kyogen, the classical Japanese comedy that is staged between Noh plays) is performing their annual show of Kyogen comedies, 'Sorya!,' minimalist stagings of rigorous physical theater—like dance or martial arts in its patterns—that portrays medieval comic types, almost the Japanese equivalent of Chaucer or Boccaccio: servants tricking masters, wives fooling husbands, pompous priests & judges made fun of ...

Directed by artistic director Jubilith Moore, this year's run—ending next Monday night—hearkens back almost 35 years, to the founding & early days of Theatre of Yugen, when all the performers were women, a reverse of the classical tradition in Japan, where all parts are played by men.

"The Thunder God," "The Bonsai Thief" & "The Snail"—three short comedies in an hour: timeless laughter.